About the Bursary scheme

The Museum Development South East Collections Conference will be held at the London Museum - Docklands 11th March 2025. We are offering a limited number of bursaries to cover the cost of attending the conference.  The bursary gives you free access to the conference (normal ticket price £40) plus up to £100 to cover expenses such as travel.  The bursary aims to help individuals working or volunteering at museums in the south & east to develop their professional skills and build confidence to support their museum’s resilience. It is available to individuals whether paid staff, volunteers, or trustees.  We accept applications from freelance consultants who have a current contract with an eligible museum, as long as the training need is related to that contract and the museum's needs. 

Recipients of bursaries will be required to complete a short report about an aspect of the conference.  The format of the report will be agreed with MDSE.  The intention is to publish these reports and share best practice to the wider museum community about the topics and talks explored at the conference.

The bursary must be used to help attend the MDSE Collections Conference on the 11th March 2025:  The maximum grant award for this scheme is £100. The grant deadline for submissions will be 12pm 20th January 2025, applicants will be notified by the 27th January.  Please note we cannot accept applications after the final deadline.

Before completing this form, please read the general grant guidance document which is available on the Museum Development South East website.

You can preview all the questions by downloading a copy of the application form from our website, but please do not use it to apply - complete the form below. If you are unable to use this form for technical reasons please email us at admin@mdse.org.uk.

Eligibility 

This grant is available to staff, volunteers, trustees or freelancers associated with an eligible museum within Arts Council England's South East region. Eligible museums are Accredited museums or those officially Working Towards Accreditation, which are not also National museums or ACE National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs).

We regret we are unable to accept applications from employees or volunteers at National museums or NPOs, or from museums not in ACE's Accreditation Scheme.

We will only accept a single application from each museum organisation within the south east.

We do not fund:

• expenses that has already been delivered, commissioned or ordered
• permanent staff salaries 
• operating costs
• contingency
• internal admin and management fees

For more information about our funding criteria, deadlines, assessment procedures and advice on how to complete the application, please read our Grant Guidance, available to download from the Grants page on our website.

Talk to us

We welcome enquiries before application to the bursary you can talk to your local Museum Development Officer before submitting your grant application. This is to help improve the quality of your application, and improve your chances of success. 

Terms and Conditions

As part of our funding Terms and Conditions, we ask our grant recipients to:

• acknowledge Museum Development South East, Arts Council England and Art Fund in publicity material associated with the funded activity, using approved branding and logos.
• Attend the Collections Conference at the London Museum Docklands on the 11th March 2025.
• submit a short Report to MDSE by 24 March 2025.

Failure to uphold the T&Cs may result in a request to repay the grant and affect your museum's chance of securing further grants from MDSE for up to 12 months.

These grants are funded by Arts Council England and Art Fund.